By —- Shyamal Sinha
China on Tuesday said it hopes India maintains healthy and stable development of people-to-people contact and cultural exchanges between two countries.
Confucius Institutes are public educational partnerships between colleges and universities in China with those in other countries and deals in Chinese language teaching.
“Over the years, Confucius Institutes have played an important role in promoting Chinese language teaching in India and China-India people-to-people and cultural exchanges. This has been generally recognised by the Indian education community,” read the statement.
The Embassy of China in a statement said Beijing hopes New Delhi will treat “Confucius Institutes and higher education cooperation in a fair and objective manner”.
The statement comes as the government of India is reported to review Chinese language programmes across universities.
“Indian relevant parties can treat Confucius Institutes and China-India higher education cooperation in an objective and fair manner, avoid politicising normal cooperation and maintain healthy and stable development of China-India people-to-people and cultural exchanges,” it said.
It said that the Confucius Institutes have played an important role in promoting Chinese language teaching in India and China-India people-to-people and cultural exchanges.
Confucius Institutes are public educational partnerships between colleges and universities in China with those in other countries and deals in Chinese language teaching.
The Embassy statement further added that the demand for Chinese language teaching is expanding in India.
“China-India cooperation on Confucius Institute Project has been carried out for more than 10 years,” it stated.
The National Education Policy (NEP) has not mentioned Mandarin – group of Sinitic Chinese languages from the list of the examples of foreign languages.
All Confucius Institutes were established by the Chinese and Indian universities after signing a legally binding cooperation agreement in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, friendly consultation, equality and mutual benefit and on the premise that the Indian side applied voluntarily and met the conditions for running the Institute. China-India cooperation on Confucius Institute Project has been carried out for more than 10 years,” it stated.
Yesterday it was reported that the Ministry of Education will review the setting up of local chapters of the Confucius Institutes in association with seven local colleges and universities in the country.
